Chandigarh: If the second child is a girl, abortion is becoming a common practice especially amongst the literate section in the Indian households. Analyzing the results of the 2011 consensus, a recent Lancet published study, of which one of the coauthors is a PGI based Dr Rajesh Kumar, has revealed some of these startling facts about selective abortions in the country. Preference for boys, which is commonly known in parts of Punjab, Gujarat and Haryana, has also been found in 405 districts out of the 563 districts nationwide had shown decline in the child sex ratio (the number of females per thousand males in human population between age group 0-6 years).

The study was led by Professor Prabhat Jha, Centre for Global Health Research, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Canada, and Professor Rajesh Kumar, PGI School of Public Health, Chandigarh.

The 2011 Indian census revealed about 71 million fewer girls than boys aged 0-6 years, a notable increase in the gap of 60 million fewer girls recorded in the 2001 census and 42 million fewer girls recorded in the 1991 census. In this study, the authors analysed census data to determine absolute numbers of selective abortions and examined over 250,000 births from national surveys to estimate differences in the girl-boy ratio for second births in families in which the first-born child had been a girl.

They found that this girl-boy ratio fell from 906 girls per 1000 boys in 1990 to 836 in 2005; an annual decline of 052%. Declines were much greater in mothers with 10 or more years of education than in mothers with no education, and in wealthier households compared with poorer households. "But if the first child had been a boy, there was no fall in the girl-boy ratio for the second child over the study period, strongly suggesting that families, particularly those that are more wealthy and educated, are selectively aborting girls if their firstborn child is also a girl," said Dr Rajesh.

After adjusting for excess mortality rates in girls, the authors' ranged estimates of number of selective abortions of girls rose from 0-20 million in the 1980s, to 12-41 million in the 1990s, and to 31-60 million in the 2000s. "Each 1% decline in child sex ratio at ages 0-6 years implied between 12 and 36 million more selective abortions of girls. Selective abortions of girls are estimated at between 4 and 12 million over the 3 decades from 1980 to 2010," said Dr Rajesh.